cicada

Chapter 1462 [Surprise Attack]

At the border region's garrison, Liu Wusan was recounting how he and his wife were recruited, a process that dates back as far as ten years.

“Our files are all real, except for one false entry: in 1934, we were recruited by Dai Chunfeng of the Bureau to become members of the ‘Special Forces Group’.”

Luo Yongying stopped taking notes, frowned, and asked, "Tell me about this [Special Forces Group]."

"Sir, I don't know."

Liu Wusan shook his head helplessly, and fearing that Luo Yongying would not believe him, he quickly added something.

"The members of the [Special Forces Team] are trained individually, and the location of their camp is highly confidential. I only know that it is roughly in southern Anhui Province."

"All the instructors inside are masked, and trainees and instructors only use code names to address each other; the use of real names is strictly prohibited."

“After graduation, we maintained a one-way communication with Dai Chunfeng. The contact person responsible for relaying messages was changed regularly, so we had no way of knowing information about other members.”

"Dai Chunfeng's orders to us were to remain dormant and not to be activated until wartime, when they would prove surprisingly effective."

Luo Yongying wrote down "[Strict confidentiality]" and "[Single-line contact]" on a piece of paper, and then asked Liu Wusan to talk about the training courses and experiences of the "Special Forces Group".

Liu Wusan dared not hide anything and frankly admitted that their courses were similar to those of ordinary spies, only with higher requirements.

In addition to intelligence and operational training, all members of the "Special Forces Team" also receive ideological and political education every day.

The political instructors will tirelessly repeat the Three Principles of the People, reinforcing the students' loyalty to the Kuomintang and to Dai Chunfeng personally through repeated lessons.

According to Liu Wusan, he and his wife trained for two whole years before returning to their hometown together.

That small mountain village in Shanxi Province, with only a dozen or so households, had long been replaced by Kuomintang agents. Any strangers who entered the village would be discovered.

In the following years, Liu Wusan and his wife made a living by farming at home, and sometimes he even forgot his identity as a secret agent.

Until the fall of Taiyuan, Liu Wusan received instructions from Dai Chunfeng, asking them to find a way to go to the Northwest to lie low.

Dai Chunfeng also suggested that he disclose his bricklaying skills during registration, as the border region was in dire need of reconstruction at the time, and refugees with skills would find it easier to enter the core area.

Sure enough, Liu Wusan was assigned to a village near the garrison thanks to his skills, and successfully went undercover.

Upon hearing this, Luo Yongying immediately ordered his men to warn the comrades who had gone out to investigate, to prevent them from being exposed.

After arranging this matter, she said to Liu Wusan, "Your process of stealing intelligence."

Liu Wusan nodded: "I said, we started to lie in wait after entering the border area, but we didn't take any action for a long time because we were worried about being exposed."

"Just as you said, Commander, a little over a month ago, I encountered an air raid when I went to the confidential room. While the others went to the air-raid shelter, I secretly entered the warehouse."

"I originally just wanted to go in and take a look, but I didn't expect there to be a file bag on the table containing the files of an intelligence team and their recent missions."

Luo Yongying asked, "Isn't the document bag sealed?"

"No," Liu Wusan replied. Even if the document bag had a seal, he wouldn't dare to peek at the intelligence; that would be courting death.

Upon hearing this, Luo Yongying frowned. The colleague responsible for handling the documents that day had neglected his duty. Confidential documents must not be out of sight once opened; this is a matter of discipline.

After hesitating for a moment, she made a note of the situation, then suddenly seemed to remember something and tapped the table with her pen.

"The records say that you and your husband were separated from your family. Isn't that fabricated?"

When this was mentioned, Liu Wusan looked dejected: "Yes, they are all in Dai Chunfeng's hands. Sir, could you please not make it public that we have already confessed to this? Otherwise, they will be in danger."

Luo Yongying agreed, but threatening his family was a tactic used by Kuomintang agents, something their underground party would never stoop to.

Having received the answer he wanted, Liu Wusan was deeply moved. To thank Luo Yongying, he truthfully revealed the location of the dead mailbox and the method of contact.

"The dead mailbox is under the locust tree behind the land temple outside the village. There is a hole in the tree there, which is usually covered with soil."

"When it's time to exchange intelligence, the contact person and I just need to turn the incense burner in front of the Earth God half a circle to the left, and the exchange can be completed in three days at the latest."

Luo Yongying recorded the facts truthfully, which proved that Liu Wusan's contact person was inside the border area or could freely enter and leave the border area without arousing the suspicion of the security personnel.

Who could this person be?
A peddler? A traditional Chinese medicine doctor? Or someone with some special identity?
This speculation made Luo Yongying even more grateful for her decision; the news of Liu Wusan's arrest must not be leaked before the clues are fully understood.

She whispered to her subordinates, "Send someone to keep an eye on the dead mailbox. No one is allowed to move it without orders from above."

On the other hand, Liu Wusan's wife also confessed, and the content matched Liu Wusan's confession without any contradictions or errors.

Luo Yongying reported the situation, and Vice Minister Li issued the same order: monitor but do not arrest anyone.

No matter how cunning the enemy is, once exposed, their demise is not far off.

As for the sudden appearance of the "surprise squad," Vice Minister Li was not too surprised. Struggle is everywhere, and the enemy's conspiracies will never stop.

If they start to hesitate and worry about the consequences, then they shouldn't be doing their jobs; they should just identify and solve problems.

Two days later, several security officers lay prone in the grass, gazing at the waist-high earth god temple in the distance, their pistols cocked.

Several villagers carrying hoes walked by in the distance. The security officers immediately became more vigilant, but the villagers were just passing by and did not approach the land temple.

Amidst the disappointed gazes of the crowd, the sun slowly rose higher, and around noon, a horse-drawn carriage stopped at the village entrance.

The border region attached great importance to transportation, not only repairing existing roads but also allowing residents to establish private horse-drawn carriage routes. "Whoa!"

The coachman pulled the reins, and the carriage stopped at the side of the road. Several passengers jumped off, stretching their arms and legs while joking with each other.

Amidst laughter and chatter, the passengers departed. The gray-haired rickshaw driver looked around, then unbuckled his belt and walked to the roadside.

"Observe carefully, there's something wrong with this person."

Seeing the suspicious-looking driver, one of the security officers reminded his companion, his eyes following the man's figure as he slowly moved.

After driving and stopping for a while, the driver made sure no one was watching nearby, then ducked into the local temple and quickly turned the incense burner before going around to the back of the temple.

Two minutes later, the coachman returned to the carriage, cracked his whip, and gave a loud whistle.

The sound of horses' hooves gradually faded into the distance. The security officers did not follow the coachman or check the dead mailbox; they simply stood silently in place.

That evening, Liu Wusan appeared at the local temple, took the intelligence from the dead mailbox, and returned home as quickly as possible.

Inside the cave dwelling, Luo Yongying gathered around the oil lamp and unfolded the intelligence report, which was covered with dense numbers. Liu Wusan deciphered the telegram from memory.

[Verify whether Du Ziteng of Jinling has surrendered. After completing the task, enter silence.]

Luo Yongying looked at Liu Wusan in astonishment: "Did Dai Chunfeng give you this order? You can decode the telegram without a codebook?"

“Yes,” Liu Wusan replied honestly, “Memorizing the secret code is a basic requirement for the [Special Forces Group].

This statement gave Luo Yongying a more accurate understanding of the professionalism of the "Special Forces Team." If the other members of the "Special Forces Team" were also like this, then they were indeed a formidable opponent.

"By the way, I have some news that I don't know if it will be useful to you. It seems that the creation of the [Special Forces] is related to a project called [Canned Food]."

At this moment, Liu Wusan interjected, and seeing Luo Yongying and the security personnel staring at him, he lowered his head and began to explain.

“I just realized that one of the instructors said they were all drawn from Project Canned Food. If your army wants to know more intelligence, you can start from this point.”

Luo Yongying was having a headache. Why did this canned food project suddenly appear? It seemed she had to ask her superiors for help.

The intelligence was delivered to Vice Minister Li as quickly as possible. Vice Minister Li fell into deep thought and then sent a secret telegram to Qiu Chan through the top leader.

[Quick investigation into the "Canned Goods Project" and the "Special Forces Team" may be related to Dai Chunfeng]

Zuo Chong received the telegram, glanced at the "Canned Food Project" file on the table, and thought to himself, "Just as I thought."

This file does not contain the specific details of the "Canned Goods Project," but is merely a memorandum that records in detail the resources and funds consumed by the project.

Zuo Zhong hadn't specifically checked before, so he hadn't noticed anything wrong. Now that he saw it, the problem was indeed quite serious; the staff salaries alone exceeded the budget by 30%.

He roughly calculated that at least twenty to thirty people's salaries were unaccounted for, and these people were very likely members of the "Special Forces Team".

Zuo Zhong tapped the file with his left hand, pondering for a long time before finally deciding to temporarily abandon the search for these secret moles.

Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice. The [Special Forces Team] has no leads right now. Instead of racking their brains to investigate, it's more realistic to wait for Lao Dai to crash into a mountain and break into the safe.

Moreover, Dai Chunfeng is in a sensitive period, and a large-scale investigation would easily be discovered, so it's better to remain still than to take any action.

After quietly returning the files, Zuo Zhong resumed his daily work routine, focusing all his attention on the Japanese.

Hundreds of meters away, in a secret room of Dai Chunfeng's residence, Old Dai was personally operating a radio. As a former front-line field agent, he naturally understood telecommunications technology. Although he wasn't very proficient, sending and receiving telegrams was still no problem for him.

Brother Chai, are you satisfied with the first gift?

Not long after the telegram was sent, the ticking of Morse code echoed in the dark room, and a new line of text quickly appeared on the paper in front of Dai Chunfeng.

Tokyo is satisfied. As long as the Yamashiro government does not resist our army in other areas, our army guarantees that Your Excellency's territory will not be invaded.

The communication ended, and the note recording those words turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared into the brazier.

Old Dai's eyes were complicated. He looked up at the roof and sighed deeply: "It's like trying to get something from a tiger. The Japanese can't be trusted, they can't be trusted at all."

……

As the days passed, the turmoil surrounding Ban Jun and Du Ziteng's defection to the enemy gradually subsided. However, in March 1944, the Japanese army in North China, Central China, and South China began to stir.

News from the front lines indicated that several tea sets were damaged in a single day at the Huangshan official residence, and someone's profanity could be heard from a great distance.

One day in March, after attending the Junwei Conference, Zuo Chong returned and gave the [400] Group its first task: to do everything possible to gather information on the recent movements of the puppet government's army.

Hayashi Fuichiro in Tokyo and Hasegawa Ryosuke in Shanghai also sent secret telegrams to Zuo Zhong, reminding him that the Japanese army inside the Great Wall might be making a big move recently.

There is reliable evidence that this will be the largest military operation launched by the Japanese army since the invasion of the Republic of China, and the Nationalist government needs intelligence from all sides.

With the help of his memories from his previous life, Zuo Zhong knew better than anyone that if they could withstand this attack, the National Government's victory was only a matter of time.

If they can't hold out, the Nationalist government will have no room to retreat, and these people will probably have to go to Tibet to fight as guerrillas.

But no matter what, surrender was out of the question; all that remained was death. Zuo Zhong threw the remaining half of the Republic of China map onto the table.

(To be continued)